World Boxing Championships: Lovlina, Sakshi in QF; braveheart Preeti loses

NEW DELHI: Aggressive, unrelenting, confidence-personified. This is what India’s talented women boxers have shown to the global boxing community at the World Championships here. Attack is the key word, no matter how superior or highly rated their opponents are. While Sakshi Choudhary and Lovlina Borgohain sailed into the quarterfinals, Monday’s story was about Preeti Pawar, who, even after her defeat by split decision, was the cynosure of all eyes because of her courageous and determined display. Asian Championships bronze medallist Preeti’s showdown against Tokyo Olympian, Thailand’s Jutamas Jitpong, was by far the best bout featuring an Indian on the day. It had the motley crowd at the Indira Gandhi indoor stadium on its feet. Preeti, in her debut senior World Championships, was up against an experienced Thai campaigner. Jutamas was beaten by reigning world champion Nikhat Zareen in the final of the women’s 52kg category at the Istanbul Worlds last year. Since then, Nikhat has gone down to the 50kg category, while Jutamas has jumped to the bantamweight (54kg) division. In their pre-quarterfinal bout here, Preeti matched her fancied rival for every hook, jab and punch during an engrossing nine-minute contest spread over three rounds. The first round went 4-1 in Preeti’s favour but she was edged out 3-2 by Jutamas in the second. In the final period, both went all-out with a barrage of punches and some stunning upper cuts. However, this is where Preeti’s lack of experience cost her. The Indian ran out of steam having spent all her energy in the first two periods, while Jutamas managed to hang in there by the skin of her teeth to sail past her opponent 3-2 in that round. The final scoreline read 4-3 in Jutamas’ favour, justifying the intensity of the bout. Earlier, Sakshi, the 2021 Asian Championships bronze medallist, put up a stellar performance to script an impressive 5-0 victory over Kazakhstan’s Zhazira Urakbayeva in the 52kg category to inch a step closer to assuring herself of at least a bronze. Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina began her campaign in the event with a rusty 5-0 win over Mexico’s Vanessa Ortiz in the 75kg division to enter the last-eight. Lovlina, who has been competing in the middleweight category for the first time at the Worlds after making a switch from the non-Olympic class of 69kg, failed to assert her authority over her shorter opponent, who could barely reach her shoulders and was struggling to punch upwards.